Installation of the New Schantz Organ, Last Day

It’s finished! In ten working days!
And, as you can see, it’s beautiful.

“Thanks” is just not enough when it comes to my gratitude for Rob Baumgartner and his spectacular crew (I’ll name them all later) for their talent, incredible work ethic, and unfailing good humor. I’m really going to miss having them around here; they’re a great bunch of guys.

What’s left now is the incredibly important work of tonal finishing—giving the organ its voice. {I played it in its present unvoiced state today; really, you wouldn’t want to listen for more than about ten seconds. It’s pretty hilarious…) Note by note, pipe by pipe, rank by rank, each of the thousands of pipes in the organ gets adjusted for quickness of speech, volume, and timbre. It’s painstaking work, and it’s done by the geniuses at Schantz over the next weeks.

I’ve left no commentary for these last photos; I think they speak for themselves.